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Once a thriving community and center of commerce and industry during
the canal era the Union Mills area had schools, general stores, cooper shop, distillery, stables, blacksmith shop, grist
mill, stone cutting mill, post office and lock tenders house and was the location of lock number 50 of the Ohio and Erie Canal.
The area is now part of West Portsmouth, Ohio.
Flour Mill and Distillery
Lemuel Moss first built a grist mill on this site in 1834
and it was rented and operated by William Waller and Samuel Coles.
The orginial mill was destoryed by fire
in 1838 but rebuilt and continued to be operated by Waller and Coles until the mill was purchased by Lucien Robinson in 1851.
In 1857 a distillery was built on this site near the mill by Robinson and Davd Gibson and it was operated in conjunction
with the mill until 1859 when it was sold to George Davis.
Davis operated the distillery until the organization
of the Distillers' and Cattle Feeders' Trust in 1887.
The "Whiskey Trust"
Centered in Illinosis and better know as the "Whiskey Trust" the
Distillers' and Cattle Feeders’ Trust was modeled after the Standard Oil trust and was organized in
May 1887.
The Whiskey Trust was one of the largest and most notorious combines in the industrial history
of the United States and was formed to limit the production of wine and spirits.
The "Cattle Feeders'"
term came from the practice of feeding the residue of grain mash, commonly called "slop" to cattle kept at distillery
barnes. Distillery fed cattle produced a superior quality of beef and were in high demand.
When a distillery
joined the trust it surrendered control of its operations to a board of trustees. Of the eighty-six distilleries that eventually
joined the trust, only ten or twelve were kept in operation; the remainder were shut down including the one owned by Davis.
Davis continued to operate mill until his death in 1894.
The mill was destroyed in the early 1900's.
Union Mills Confectionery
Today the Union Mills Confectionery is located near the
site of where the old mill stood.
The bakery is well known for its high quality bake goods and has dozens
of antique artifacts on display.
Visitor's can stop for a stack and enjoy the rich history of the
site.
The Ohio and Erie Canal
Constructed between 1825 and 1832 the Ohio and Erie Canal system connected Lake Erie at Cleveland
to the Ohio River near Portsmouth.
The canals transformed the Ohio's isolated frontier economy almost
overnight by opening markets from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico for its agriculture and industrial products
and by attracting thousands of new settlers to the state.
The canals enjoyed a golden age of prosperity
from the 1830's until the early 1860's with a peak in revenue between 1852 and 1855.
During the 1840's
Ohio was the third most prosperous state in the union owing much of its growth to the canals.
Following the Civil
War profits began to decline as railroards took and ever increasing share of the shipping market and floods
continuously damaged
the canals.
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| Cutaway view of typical canal boat |
From 1861 until 1879 Ohio leased its canals to private
owners who earned revenue from declining boat operations and the sale of water to factories and towns.
When the
state took back operation of the canals in 1879 it discovered that they had not been maintained and that some of the
state lands surrounding the canals had been sold illegally.
It was also discovered that many portions of the canal
had been filled in during the leasing period for "health reasons" and that railroad track had been laid over
the former canal on the state's right of way.
A lot of state land had simply been given away for
free to many private owners to win political favor.
Some revenue continued to be generated until the close of the
canals in 1913 from the sale of water rights and the recovery and resale of land surrounding the canals.
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| Example of a canal lock |
Ohio & Erie Canal Lock 50
Becaue the topography of Ohio varies from lowlands, plateaus, rugged hills and steep valleys a system
of locks was necessary to allow the canal boats to traverse the over 300-miles of the Ohio and Erie canal.
The
lock system acted like hydraulic elevators lifting a canal boat six to ten feet at a time as the lock was filled with water
from upstream or lowering the canal boat to the downstream level by draining the lock.
To operate a lock, the gates were closed by means of
long, heavy handles called “sweeps."
A “wicket” or “butterfly valve” was opened
in an upper gate to fill the lock, lifting the boat to the upper level or if the boat was going the other way the wicket in
a lower gate would be opened to drain the lock to the downstream level of the canal.
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| Remnants of Ohio & Erie Canal Lock 50 at Union Mills |
The Union Mills area was a beehive of activity during the hayday
of the canal with several mills, a distillery, post office and many shops located there.
There
were a series of three canal locks in the Union Mills area while the canal was in operation with Lock 50 opening
on Decemeber 1, 1832.
Only the remnants of Lock 50 (shown in the picture at the left) remain today.
A historical marker was erected in 2003 during the bicentennial
of Scioto County and Ohio to commerate the Union Mills area and Lock 50.
The marker is pictured below.
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| Historic marker located at Union Mills |
